Rolla Daily News, Missouri: “Human Rights Abuses Depicted in Film”

(Minghui.org) Rolla Daily News of Missouri reported on December 7 that city council and members of the community were invited to a screening by New Tang Dynasty TV of the new documentary film “Free China: Courage to Believe.”

Falun Gong started to gain popularity in China in 1992. Initially, the authorities believed the exercises to be beneficial to the Communist Party, and more and more people began to practice. But when the number of practitioners in China reached 100 million, the authorities started persecuting Falun Gong.

The documentary was completed in February 2012 and has won awards in Peru, Denver, and Philadelphia.

The movie’s official website states:

“The fates of a woman living in Beijing and a man living in New York become inextricably linked because of a common conviction.

“A mother and former Communist Party member, Jennifer Zeng, was imprisoned for her faith. As she endures physical and mental torture, she has to decide: Does she stand her ground and languish in jail, or does she recant her belief so she can tell her story to the world?

“A world away, Dr. Charles Lee, a Chinese American businessman, wanted to do his part to stop the persecution by attempting to broadcast uncensored information on state controlled television. He was arrested in China and sentenced to three years of forced labor in a prison camp where he endured forced labor, making among other things, Homer Simpson slippers sold at stores throughout the U.S.”

The documentary “exposes the widespread human rights violations that still take place today in China. It examines the conditions in the Chinese prison ‘re-education’ program, the brutality of an authoritarian state against tens of millions of Falun Gong practitioners, and the efforts by people of conscience to stop the persecution.”

Falun Gong (also called Falun Dafa) is a spiritual discipline introduced in China in 1992 through public lectures by its founder, Mr. Li Hongzhi. It combines the practice of meditation and slow-moving exercises with a moral philosophy based on three main tenets: Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance.